Gaming is the one element of Western culture most heavily influenced by Japan –while the Americans invented it, it was the Japanese who took the form and largely shaped it into what we know and love today.

Despite this influence, there’s still a huge disparity between the games we play, compared to our Japanese brethren. We like first-person shooters, while the Japanese tend to like dating simulators filled with train-driving super-powered pandas. Another one of our favourite genres – the RTS or real-time strategy game – is also disastrously unpopular in Japan, where turn-based strategy remains top of the pile.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is an interesting move in that it’s an RTS put together by one of Japan’s top developers, using one of Japan’s biggest games brands. The idea, apparently, is to softly introduce Japanese gamers to the style. Which is all well and good, but what’s in it for us?

A fair amount actually. Firstly there are the characters that first appeared in the PS2’s superb Final Fantasy XII – whether you’re already familiar with Vaan, Penelo, Balthier and Fran or not, they’re mostly a great bunch (especially Balthier, the “Han Solo” character) and will be just as popular with Final Fantasy newbies as with the rest of us. The story is also strong, and again, will make total sense to newcomers while adding to the overall mythology of the land of Ivalice for Final Fantasy XII vets.

Fiddlesticks

The actual strategy elements are implemented quite nicely, with plenty of original touches, and explained at a sedate pace perfect for beginners. The stylus control is intuitive and simple to get to grips with. It can all get a bit fiddly when there’s a lot going on, but being able to keep track of all the action on a battlefield was always one of the basic challenges associated with RTS gaming.

Building up a squad and (re-)learning to use the Gambit system are pretty fulfilling and there’s a greater emphasis on summoning Espers (big monsters, basically) than there was in Final Fantasy XII itself.

Best of all, it all looks and sounds lovely, and has the fantastic level of presentation that Final Fantasy games have always been known for.

It’s worth mentioning that Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, recently released on PSP, is a completely different beast. While Revenant Wings is real-time, Tactics is turn-based. While Revenant Wings is a reasonable challenge, Tactics will beat you so hard you’ll be eating through a straw for a month.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is a lot of fun, it’s an essential purchase for Final Fantasy fans and for DS owners into their strategy. If you’re a hardcore strategy nut then you may find it’s a leetle too easy (go check out Tactics!), but for everyone else it’s one of the mostly warmly enjoyable DS games around at the moment.

GAME's Verdict

• Lovely presentation.
• Great story and characters.
• Lots of depth when it gets going.

• Can be fiddly.
  
• Could be a little easy for strategy war heroes.
  
• Vaan is still a little annoying...

Review by: Jonny Austin
Review Published: 21.02.08